difference between make bzImage and make vmlinuz?

veritas · 06-07-2004, 01:06 AM

What is the difference between using the command 'make bzImage' and 'make vmlinuz' for a kernel compile?

solnul · 06-07-2004, 01:15 AM

"make bzImage" creates a bzip2 compressed kernel image (in arch/<arch>/build/bzImage). The kernel will be smaller, but might take a few seconds to uncompress on slow machines.

This is useful when trying to build a large kernel (especially 2.4 and 2.6 kernels) and use it in a situation where the size is limited (eg, a boot floppy).

veritas · 06-07-2004, 01:28 AM

Thanks, I finally know what that means.

PrayingMantis · 11-23-2011, 04:45 AM

Hi,

Just to clarify for those to whom it may help.

bzImage is NOT a bzip2 compressed image of the kernel. It is just the BIG zImage kernel file. The default zImage kernel had size limitations as it had to be loaded into RAM. All the kernels are gzip compressed. vmlinuz is just the kernel image name, you can change it anything (for ex: myKernel) as long as the grub/lilo knows it, you won't have problems booting up.

Mantis